Syria Mission Creep Already Begins

Often when the United States gets militarily involved in another country it can takes weeks or even months for the mission to slowly creepy beyond the initial justification, but this time we are lucky. In Syria we got witness the mission creep from almost the very beginning.

Yesterday, the United States and its allies began bombing several ISIS targets in Syria and while United States was there they decided to also hit another militant organization, Khorasan. A group most Americans have probably never heard about before the last few days.

I’m not disputing that the Al Qaeda-linked Khorasan group aren’t very bad people. I’m only pointing out the entire PR build up to this new “Comprehensive and Sustained Counterterrorism Strategy” war was about how terrible ISIS is, and how we need to stop ISIS, and how we need to fund “moderate” rebels to fight ISIS.

President Obama’s entire speech to the American people two weeks ago was all about degrading and destroying ISIS. There was nothing in the speech which seems like a direct reference to Khorasan or other groups in Syria that he also planned to destroy. Going after groups in Syria besides ISIS was barely ever a part of what little public debate we did have.

Now that our military operations in Syria have started it is clear the mission is already about more than just ISIS. I can only imagine how much more it will creep from here.

Syria Mission Creep Already Begins

Often when the United States gets militarily involved in another country it can takes weeks or even months for the mission to slowly creepy beyond the initial justification, but this time we are lucky. In Syria we got witness the mission creep from almost the very beginning.

Yesterday, the United States and its allies began bombing several ISIS targets in Syria and while United States was there they decided to also hit another militant organization, Khorasan. A group most Americans have probably never heard about before the last few days.

I’m not disputing that the Al Qaeda-linked Khorasan group aren’t very bad people. I’m only pointing out the entire PR build up to this new “Comprehensive and Sustained Counterterrorism Strategy” war was about how terrible ISIS is, and how we need to stop ISIS, and how we need to fund “moderate” rebels to fight ISIS.

President Obama’s entire speech to the American people two weeks ago was all about degrading and destroying ISIS. There was nothing in the speech which seems like a direct reference to Khorasan or other groups in Syria that he also planned to destroy. Going after groups in Syria besides ISIS was barely ever a part of what little public debate we did have.

Now that our military operations in Syria have started it is clear the mission is already about more than just ISIS. I can only imagine how much more it will creep from here. (more…)

Jane Hamsher

Jane is the founder of Firedoglake.com. Her work has also appeared on the Huffington Post, Alternet and The American Prospect. She’s the author of the best selling book Killer Instinct and has produced such films Natural Born Killers and Permanent Midnight. She lives in Washington DC.Subscribe in a reader